This is part of a series about my DMing Princes of the Apocalypse, a D&D 5e adventure by and copyright Wizards of the Coast.

There will be SPOILERS. If you are playing in a PotA game, please don’t read this. If you are DMing a PotA game, or are a DM who wants to see what the ride was like … read on!

GM Recap

Session 30 (Day 32)

The party assuaged the suspicions of the Cranky Druids, even as Urshnora and the Young Druids joined them at the hilltop.
The voice of Elizar Dryflagon resonated from the hall, regretting that they had not chosen to use the power of fire to help cleanse the darksome forces arising over the Sumber Hills.
Moony was attacked by a giant bat on the rooftop, where there was gap being repaired.
While the main doors into the keep were blocked by rubble, there was an entrance along the western scaffolding, thirty feet up, that was apparently the way in … guarded by crossbowmen. The party used a Transmute Rock scroll from Sacred Stone Monastery to breach the walls on the south side, letting them attack the awaiting forces within. None of them had the Fifth Key component, but the fallen Azer had a beautiful war hammer that Faith took.
In the ground level below a hole in the floor, rubble, the odor of burned and rotting meat, and an assemblage of capering Magmin burning the fallen timbers was visible … as the party prepared to storm the upper levels of the Hall.

Player Recap

The unexpected approach

The Dwarf druid Comnall and his group appear at the gate and approach the party. They are clearly angry about the destruction of Wicker Man and the fire initiates. William steps forward to try and explain what happened. He presents it honestly and does a reasonable job of convincing them of his belief in the telling, if not exactly believing the tell. He also explains that Gariena is missing and we are trying to find here and her companions.

During the discussion with Comnall, the Young Druids approach along with their elk. They are concerned. The group gives them a short synopsis of what went down.

A voice fills the courtyard. “Oh, my friends. The fire and blood rise up, exerting their influence upon the darksome forces enshrouding the Dessarin Hills. If only you could have drawn on the power of the flames to empower such a thing. Now the effort must begin afresh … if anyone is left.“

While the discussion is paused, Urshnora notices an entrance into the tower on the West roof. William says “We are going into the tower. You may join us if you like, but we are going in.” Urshnora plans on staying outside of the tower. Hope asks her to keep watch over the Young Druids. Muldoon calls out. “Oh, look!” They have found in a tent a dead sprite and a bound and unconscious Gariena. She has been beaten but is not in danger of dying. The druids will take care of her.

The group moves to the West side to climb up the ladders to the scaffolding. On the top layer of scaffolding there is an opening into the tower, but something blocks their view. Moony explores the hole in the roof. It smells a lot like guano only worse. A giant bat attacks Moony, coming through the hole in the roof. After defeating the bat Moony climbs down and the party climbs up. Moony takes a peek behind the canvas that is serving as a door to the tower. He catches a glance of a single room filling this level of the tower. He doesn’t see much before a crossbow bolts slams into the canvas. Moony sees a few people including a guy with his face on fire.

Much discussion ensues about approaches. Giant Badger digging under the rubble. Using Stone to Mud scroll to collapse the roof, floor, wall, or other. Enter through the roof with the giant bats, or other route.

They decide to use the transmute rock to mud to create a new door on the south side. The villains are completely surprised. Faith uses her Spirit Guardian spell to good effect. William pulls a couple into the pit and Nala pushes one off of the scaffold. The advisories go down quickly. Some literally go down through a hole in the floor. When the dust settles, a somewhat hidden tunnel is revealed off the ground floor.

Game Notes

The Gang’s All Here

The defeat of the (open) forces atop the hill seemed an appropriate moment for the various surviving parties to come to the hilltop as well — the Cranky Druids, sincerely concerned over what the hell the party was doing, and the Young Druids, led by Urshnora (!), trying to figure out what was going on.

In the course of searching the tents on the hill, they found an unconscious Gariena — teed up to be a sacrifice to the Wicker Giant / Fire Elemental — and a dead pixie (which still left one pixie unaccounted for). The party was duly unhappy.

Breaching the Hall

Scarlet Moon Hall is surrounded by scaffolding as part of the reconstruction. Despite the ground floor being out of commission, there are a couple of ways in — into the roof (where, apparently, Giant Bats were an issue), and through an entrance on the third floor (where, apparently, Fire Cultists were an issue).

The party spend … an inordinate amount of time (I mean, really) trying to figure out what to do next.

The scenario seems to assume a frontal assault through one entrance or another. The party was in its depressive part of its manic-depressive approach to danger, so was reluctant to do such an assault. So they took (after much deliberation) a Stone to Mud scroll (which they’d picked up as loot along the way) and blew a hole in the wall of the third floor from an unexpected direction.

Which was … unexpected.

Both for the bad guys, and for the DM, who had to very quickly improvise a hole in the wall in Roll20, and how that impacted the combat inside. Yikes.

I mean, great out-of-the-box thinking, but … yikes.

Oh, About That Hall …

Okay, here’s one of my biggest bitches about Scarlet Moon Hall. More than that, my biggest bitches about Princes of the Apocalypse.

The game-provided map sucks.

No, really, this is what you are given to work with for the assault on Scarlet Moon Hall.

Scarlet Moon Hall (as provided by the module). Yup, that’s it.

What The Actual Frell are you supposed to do with that?

I mean, sure, if you are playing Theatre of the Mind, you will improvise something, right?

If you are playing on a tactical battle map, this is utterly worthless for figuring out how to deal with combat. Which, since the tower is full of Eternal Flame cultists, along with Elizar Dryflagon, the master of this Haunted Keep, is kinda problematic.

My eyes cannot roll hard enough.

Over It Eyeroll GIF by Paul Scheer

Fine.

Instead, I crafted myself a level-by-level map of the tower.

smh floor 2 — Floor 2 – note the block of wall that the party took out in their attack.

Apologies for not-better copies — can’t find the originals. But, honestly, though a PitA, it took me only a couple of hours to kitbash this together with a drawing program and art I could find online.

This is the map (or something like it) that should come in the game, both on paper and virtually. That WotC did not do so is DM Malpractice.

Note: I have seen there are websites that sell their own battle maps for this scenario. I was quite happy with what I put together, which you are free to copy and use as you can. But that folk on Etsy and other locales are selling supplements like this should make WotC hang their heads in shame.

Bits and Bobs

I had a vision of Elizar speaking out to the folk who have essentially defeated him in finest Christopher Lee / Saruman voice, post-devastation of Isengard.